US v. Williams, 3-88-00014

• Decision Date: 23 June 1988
• Docket Number: 3-87-00169 and 3-87-00160.,3-88-00038,3-88-00036,3-88-00003,No. 3-88-00014,3-88-00014
• Citation: 691 F. Supp. 36
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Tremell W. WILLIAMS. UNITED STATES of America v. Shelby COOMES. UNITED STATES of America v. Christopher GWIN and Paul Gwin. UNITED STATES of America v. Brian K. THOMPSON. UNITED STATES of America v. Edwina Gail MANNING, James Edward Bright and Gerald Tharpe. UNITED STATES of America v. Christopher Dale CLAY.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee

691 F. Supp. 36

UNITED STATES of America
v.
Tremell W. WILLIAMS.
UNITED STATES of America
v.
Shelby COOMES.
UNITED STATES of America
v.
Christopher GWIN and Paul Gwin.
UNITED STATES of America
v.
Brian K. THOMPSON.
UNITED STATES of America
v.
Edwina Gail MANNING, James Edward Bright and Gerald Tharpe.
UNITED STATES of America
v.
Christopher Dale CLAY.

Nos. 3-88-00014, 3-88-00036, 3-88-00003, 3-88-00038, 3-87-00169 and 3-87-00160.

United States District Court, M.D. Tennessee, Nashville Division.

June 23, 1988.

691 F. Supp. 37

Joe B. Brown, U.S. Atty., Gregory C. Sisk, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., William T. Warren, William M. Cohen, Peter J. Strianse and Jimmie Lynn Ramsaur, Asst. U.S. Attys., for U.S.

William P. Redick, Jr., Don Dawson, Mariah Wooten, Asst. Federal Public Defenders, E.E. Edwards, III, Thomas W. Watson, William B. Bruce, Nashville, Tenn., for defendants.

John R. Steer, Gen. Counsel, U.S. Sentencing Com'n, Washington, D.C., amicus curiae for Government.

Alan C. Morrison, Washington, D.C., pro hac vice on behalf of defendants.

Before WISEMAN, Chief Judge, and NIXON and HIGGINS, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM

Defendants in the above-captioned cases have moved for an order declaring invalid and unenforceable the United States Sentencing Guidelines ("Sentencing Guidelines" or "Guidelines") promulgated by the United States Sentencing Commission ("Sentencing Commission" or "Commission") on the grounds that they are unconstitutional and contravene Congress' statutory intent. We, the United States District Court Judges for the Middle District of Tennessee, sitting en banc, having fully reviewed the briefs submitted by defendants, the Department of Justice, and the

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Commission,¹ having heard oral argument on May 20, 1988, and for the reasons stated herein, hereby FIND as follows

Defendants all have been charged with and/or convicted of federal crimes. The Court does not pause to make a detailed recitation of the facts in each defendant's case because their motion, as framed at oral argument, does not turn on a consideration of individual factual matters.

In their briefs, defendants assert a number of challenges to the Guidelines. First, they assert that the manner in which the Commission is formed violates the constitutional separation of powers because (1) judges may not constitutionally serve on the Commission, (2) placement of the Commission in the judicial branch impairs judicial functions, and (3) if the Commission is part of the judicial branch, then the President's removal power is impermissible. Second, defendants contend that Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine, which also has its roots in the constitutional separation of powers, by (1) delegating to the Commission the task of fixing penalties for violations of federal criminal statutes, and (2) by failing to provide sufficient standards for the Commission to guide it in performing this task. Third, defendants assert that the Guidelines contravene the Due Process Clause because they improperly limit a judge's discretion in sentencing. Finally, defendants contend that the Guidelines are inconsistent with Congress' statutory intent² and that the Commission's submission of the Guidelines to Congress was untimely.

In this Memorandum, the Court addresses defendants' claim that Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine. More specifically, the Court considers only whether Congress unconstitutionally granted the Commission power to exercise a nondelegable legislative function.

I

STATUTORY FRAMEWORK

The Court begins its analysis by reviewing the statutory framework pursuant to which the Commission was formed and the Guidelines were promulgated. In 1984, Congress enacted the Comprehensive Crime Control Act, Pub L. 98-473, 98 Stat. 1976, amended by Pub.L. 99-217, §§ 2, 4, 99 Stat. 1728 (1985); Pub.L. 100-182, 101 Stat. 1266 (1987). Chapter II of Title II of that act, the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (the "Sentencing Act" or "Act"), 98 Stat. 1987, effected a comprehensive revision of federal sentencing law. Congress enacted this legislation after concluding that the existing system of federal sentencing suffered from several interrelated flaws. Congress found that the concepts of indeterminate sentencing and parole release were based on an "outdated rehabilitation model" that "most sentencing judges as well as the Parole Commission agree ... is not an appropriate basis for sentencing decisions." S.Rep. No. 225, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. 38, 40 (1983) hereinafter "S.Rep.", reprinted in 1984 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin.News 3182, 3221, 3223 hereinafter "U.S.C.C.A.N.". Congress further found that "every day Federal judges mete out an unjustifiably wide range of sentences to offenders with similar histories, convicted under similar circumstances." Id. at 38, U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3221. Moreover, Congress noted that the earlier nonmandatory guidelines promulgated by the United States Parole Commission had "faileed in practice to achieve

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their goal of reducing unwarranted sentencing disparities" and even "contributed to disparity" in some instances. Id. at 48, U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3231. As a result of these flaws, Congress concluded, the existing sentencing approach engendered pervasive "uncertainty about the length of time offenders will serve in prison," id. at 49, U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3232, and "lacked the sureness that criminal justice must provide if it is to retain the confidence of American society and if it is to be an effective deterrent against crime," id. at 49-50, U.S.C.C. A.N. at 3232-33

One of the most significant aspects of this legislation was that it created the Sentencing Commission as an independent agency in the judicial branch of the federal government, 28 U.S.C. § 991(a), and authorized it to promulgate sentencing guidelines and policy statements that would be binding on the federal courts in imposing sentences in criminal cases, id. at § 994(a)(1). The Commission is composed of seven voting members who are appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, who can be removed by the President "for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office or for other good cause shown." Id. at § 991(a).³ Three voting members are Article III judges selected from a list of six judges recommended to the President by the Judicial Conference of the United States. Id.

As part of the Sentencing Act, Congress provided that the Commission, in establishing the Guidelines, was to "assure the meeting of the purposes of sentencing," id. at § 991(b)(1)(A), which Congress identified as: (1) deterrence of criminal conduct, (2) protection of the public from further crimes, (3) rehabilitation of the defendant, and (4) punishment of the defendant commensurate with the seriousness of the offense, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2). Congress further stated that the Guidelines were to

provide certainty and fairness in meeting the purposes of sentencing, avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar criminal conduct while maintaining sufficient flexibility to permit individualized sentences when warranted by mitigating or aggravating factors not taken into account in the establishment of general sentencing practices ... and reflect, to the extent practicable, advancement in knowledge of human behavior as it relates to the criminal justice process.

28 U.S.C. § 991(b)(1)(B)-(C).

In determining the sentence to be imposed for different criminal acts, Congress granted the Commission broad authority to determine: (1) whether to impose a sentence of probation, a fine, or a term of imprisonment; (2) the appropriate amount of a fine or the appropriate length of a term of probation or a term of imprisonment; (3) whether a sentence to a term of imprisonment should include a requirement that the defendant be placed on a term of supervised release after imprisonment, and, if so, the appropriate length of such a term; and (4) whether multiple sentences to terms of imprisonment should be ordered to run concurrently or consecutively. Id. at § 994(a)(1). Congress also provided more specific guidance in a number of areas, including establishing a sentencing range, see id. at § 994(b), (h), (i) & (j), identifying categories of offenses and defendants, see id. at § 994(c)-(d), and rewarding a defendant's assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person, see id. at § 994(n).

Pursuant to Congress' grant of authority, the Commission formulated the Sentencing Guidelines. The Guidelines are extremely detailed, covering over 200 pages of text, and are organized roughly as follows. First, within each category of crimes, "base offense levels" from 1 to 43 are listed that translate into ascending terms of punishment. Second, point adjustments in the base offense level are made upward and downward based on a number of considerations, including a defendant's

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relationship to the victim, role in the offense, obstruction of justice, criminal history, cooperation with law enforcement officers, and acceptance of responsibility. Once a final numerical designation is formulated, the sentencing range to be applied is ascertained by consulting a table that specifies the correlation between the numerical designation and a sentencing range

Pursuant to the requirements of the Sentencing Act, the Commission submitted to Congress an initial formulation of the Guidelines, and a Report stating the reasons for the Commission's recommendations, on April 13, 1987. See Sentencing Act, § 235(a)(1)(B)(ii)(I), 98 Stat. 2032. The Commission also submitted a Supplementary Report to Congress on June 18, 1987. The General Accounting Office then conducted a study and reported to Congress its views regarding the potential impact of the Guidelines on the criminal justice system. See id. at § 235(a)(1)(B)(ii)(II), 98 Stat. 2032. The entire congressional review process was to take six...